5 | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Darker Than You Think: A mighty gripping read

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson

Jack Williamson’s Darker Than You Think is a one-shot horror-novel excursion for this science fiction Grand Master, but has nonetheless been described as not only the author’s finest work, but also one of the best treatments of the werewolf in modern literature. It has been chosen for inclusion in David Pringle’s overview volume Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels (“a relatively disciplined and thoughtful work,” Pringle writes, in comparing it to the author’s earlier space operas) as well as in Jones &

The Complete John Thunstone: Too good to not be read

The Complete John Thunstone by Manly Wade Wellman

One of the subgenres of fiction that I’ve always been interested in is that of the “supernatural detective,” also sometimes known as “occult detective fiction.” Recent examples of the trope include the TV show The X-Files and the paranormal detective comic book character John Constantine, one of whose creators was Alan Moore. The stories in The Complete John Thunstone center around another character named John, one John Thunstone, a wealthy man-about-town occult detective created by fantasist and regional writer Manly Wade Wellman in the 1940’s.

Welcome to The Dreaming: An Introduction to THE SANDMAN

THE SANDMAN by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s THE SANDMAN might just be my favorite work of art. To me, it’s better than any painting, any album, any symphony, any movie, any poem, any play, and possibly, just possibly, any novel, which to me, as an English Professor, is the greatest art form of them all. I might even like THE SANDMAN better than Pride and Prejudice just for the sheer scope of the thing. If I had to go to that hypothetical island I’m often asked about,

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller by various authors and artists

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller was a TV show, but somehow I missed seeing it: This graphic novel version serves as my first introduction. It’s such a wonderful graphic novel — and fitting for all ages — that I was curious to see if the TV show was supposed to be any good. Based on Amazon’s reviews, it was a much-loved show mixing live-action and puppets, as I’m sure some of you out there know. I was also curious to know before I wrote this review if fans of the TV show would be likely to enjoy this adaptation,

June 7th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Volume 1

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 illustrated by P. Craig Russell

Just recently I’ve been reading more comics and graphic novels for kids. As with many of the best young adult novels, the best comics for kids are also of interest to adults. The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde and Jim Henson’s The Storyteller are two collections that certainly fall into this category. This week I’ll review The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, and next week I will review Jim Henson’s The Storyteller.

May 31st, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth: Fragments from Tolkien

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is the first work that showed us how J.R.R. Tolkien’s obsessive perfectionism was a double-edged sword. On the one hand it gave us the wonderfully deep world and implied distances of THE LORD OF THE RINGS; and on the other hand it left us with a jumble of tales in various states of revision and development that had to be compiled by Tolkien’s son Christopher into some form as The Silmarillion… a jumble of tales that,

Fury: A classic of Golden Age science fiction

Fury by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore

1946 had been a very good year indeed for Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, with a full dozen stories published plus three fine novels (The Fairy Chessmen, Valley of the Flame and The Dark World), and in 1947, science fiction’s preeminent husband-and-wife writing team continued its prolific ways. Before the year was out, the two had succeeded in placing another 15 stories into the pulp magazines of the day,

Animal Man: Origin of the Species and Deus Ex Machina

Animal Man, Volume 2: Origin of the Species & Animal Man, Volume 3: Deus Ex Machina by Grant Morrison (writer) & Chas Truog (artist) issues 10-26

These two volumes of Animal Man — Origin of the Species and Deus Ex Machina — complete the collection of Grant Morrison’s run on this once-minor DC character. This 26-issue run marks Morrison’s entry into American comics. The Scottish Morrison, along with Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore,

May 3rd, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Galveston: May be Sean Stewart’s best novel

Galveston by Sean Stewart

This may be Sean Stewart’s best novel, though it is not my favourite. Here we see Stewart displaying full mastery of his prose, his characterization, and his depiction of a fully realized magical world. Be warned though, neither the characters, nor the world presented, are always pleasant to behold.

We follow the story of Josh Cane, a young man with a chip on his shoulder due to the constrained circumstances of his life that are the result of his father’s loss of a pivotal game of poker.

Grendel: Archives and Grendel: Devil by the Deed

Grendel: Archives and Grendel: Devil by the Deed by Matt Wagner (writer and artist)

Now that I’ve read Matt Wagner’s Grendel: Archives and Grendel: Devil by the Deed, I regret how long it took me to read any of his Grendel stories, a series of comics that have a thirty-year history (and counting). I kept reading about them here and there, but had no sense of what they were about. I assumed they had something to do with Beowulf,

April 19th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Rating: 5

Darker Than You Think: A mighty gripping read

The Complete John Thunstone: Too good to not be read

Welcome to The Dreaming: An Introduction to THE SANDMAN

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Volume 1

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth: Fragments from Tolkien

Fury: A classic of Golden Age science fiction

Animal Man: Origin of the Species and Deus Ex Machina

Galveston: May be Sean Stewart’s best novel

Grendel: Archives and Grendel: Devil by the Deed

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